About This Print
As Tokyo's, and Japan's, first Western-style skyscraper, Ryōunkaku 凌雲閣 ("Cloud-Surpassing Pavillion") was subject of a number of depictions in woodblock and lithograph prints, posters and postcards, several examples of which are shown below. The colors on this collection's print look as fresh as the day it was printed 130 years ago. The colors of modernity, red and purple, dominate, as is befitting this architectural marvel which opened in late 1890.
This twelve-story 170' tower stood in the Asakusa district of Tokyo from 1890 until its demolition following the Great Kanto earthquake on September 21, 1923. Designed by Scottish engineer W. K. Burton, the Asakusa Jūnikai 浅草十二階, Asakusa Twelve-Stories, as it was called affectionately by Tokyoites, was the most popular attraction in Tokyo, and a showcase for new technologies, housing Japan's first electric elevator.1
click on image to enlarge
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #2232 |
| Title or Description | Tokyo Asakusa Park: Picture of the Ryounkaku Building 東京浅草公園凌雲閣之図 |
| Artist | Utagawa Kuniteru III (active c. 1886-1895) |
| Signature |  |
| Seal (of the artist) | no seal |
| Publication Date |  明治廿四年ニ月 印刷 仝年仝月 日出版 [click on image to enlarge] |
| Publisher | Katada Chōjirō  [click on image to enlarge] [Marks ref. 217, seal not shown] |
| Impression | good - misregistered as consistent with low-cost prints of period |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | fair - trimmed to image right and bottom margins; vertical and center folds length of paper; paper repair verso center left margin |
| Genre | ukiyo-e; kaika-e |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | vertical oban triptych |
| H x W Paper | 13 1/2 x 8 5/8 in. (34.3 x 21.9 cm) |
| H x W Image | 12 3/4 8 3/16 in. (32.4 x 20.8 cm) |
| Literature | |
| Collections This Print | Suntory Museum of Art ID 895; Edo Tokyo Museum (Tokyo Digital Museum) 87102133 |
1/23/2020 created
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